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Friday, 21 February 2014

Born this day

Anais Nin (1903 – 1977) French
Author

W. H. Auden (1907 – 1973) UK / US
Poet

Humphry Berkeley(1926 – 1994) UK
Politician

Barbara Jordan (1936 – 1996) US
Politician, who gained national attention for her intelligence, acumen, and oratorical skill as a member of the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee during hearings on the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal. In her career as a legislator and educator she was a vigorous proponent of equal rights, especially for African Americans and women. A deeply closeted lesbian, she did not, however, speak out for the cause of glbtq rights.

Keith Prentice(1940 – 1992) US
Actor

Sam Garrison (1942 – 2007) US
Lawyer / Activist

David Geffen(1943 – ) US
Legendary music promoter, film producer, entertainment business mogul and philanthropist.

Peter Hitchener (1946 – ) Australian
Presenter

Phil Reed (1949 – 2008) US
Politician

Isaac Julien (1960 – ) UK
Artist / Director

Chuck Palahnuik(1962 – ) US
Author / Journalist

Jenny Hiloudaki(1968 – ) Greek
Model / Author

Ramy Eletreby (1981 – ) US
Actor / Journalist

Died this day

Harriet Hosmer (1830 - 1908 ) US
Sculptor

Sodomy in history, February 21st

1788 — New York amends its sodomy law to also require the forfeiture of estate of convicted sodomites.

1903 — New York City police raid the Ariston baths and arrest 26 men for sexual activity (the first recorded raid on a US gay bathhouse). 7 later sentenced to between 4 and 20 years imprisonment. The others in the place are released with a warning and made to leave the building passing through a jeering crowd that had gathered.

1947 — A New York court upholds the conviction of a man for public indecency for sending a young man a letter stating his desire to fuck him. A month later, another court frees him because there was actually no law against what he did.

1963 — American Samoa passes a sodomy law, basing it on the Georgia law, so that two women can not be prosecuted under it.

1963 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds another solicitation conviction of a man with the corroborating evidence that he had put forth no character witnesses for himself.

1975 — The Washington Court of Appeals rejects a defendant’s contention that fellatio was not a violation of the state’s sodomy law.

Died this day

Laurence Housman ( 1865 - 1959) UK
Playwright / Author / Illustrator

Anthony Asquith (1902 - 1968) UK DirectorJohn Paul Hudson (1929 - 2002 ) US Activist / JournalistMarcella Althaus-Reid(? - 2009 ) Argentinian
Theologian, who applied the principles of the liberation theology she she applied in Argentina under the military theology, to sexual liberation and feminist theology. She was a pioneer in the development of queer theology, best known for her landmark books "Indecent Theology" and "The Queer God".

Jason Wood(1972 -2010) UK
Singer / Drag Queen [Cher Travesty]

Sodomy in history, February 20th

1775 — In Frisia, the Netherlands, two teenage servants are banished for three years for "toleration of sodomy."

1852 — Delaware eliminates the flogging penalty for sodomy and substitutes time in the pillory before imprisonment.

1939 — The Indiana Supreme Court rejects the contention of a man and woman convicted of sodomy that oral sex only between people of the same sex is sodomy.

1959 — The Idaho Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of Gordon Larsen, one of the Boise victims, despite inflammatory remarks by prosecutors at his trial. The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the decision.

1973 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rejects a First Amendment challenge to Gay men soliciting for sex.

1974 — A California appellate court rejects a challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s oral copulation law.

Justin Fashanu (1959/61 - 1998) UK
Footballer who was known by his early clubs to be gay, and came out to the press later in his career, to become the first and only English professional footballer to be openly homosexual. Until former France international Olivier Rouyer came out in 2008, Fashanu was still the only professional footballer in the world to disclose that he was gay. Fashanu hanged himself in May 1998,at a time when he was wanted in the United States on charges of sexually assaulting a teenager in Maryland. In his suicide note, he insisted that the sex had been consensual.
Since his death, he has been frequently held up as a role model, to encourage other sporting figures to come out publicly.

A prominent American activist for gay equality. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the US at that time: the United States government.

Sodomy in history, February

1854 — Alabama is the first state in the nation to make conviction of the "crime against nature" a specific grounds for divorce.

1893 — The Washington Supreme Court notes that Washington has no sodomy law, even though it is indictable under the common-law statute.

1957 — The Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man committed on a blind boy of borderline intelligence, after the trial judge determined him competent to testify because "he believes in God" and had the Bible read to him.

Monday, 17 February 2014

Born this day

Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) Italian
Composer / Violinist

Friedrich Alfred Krupp(1854 - 1902), German.

German industrialist, of the Krupp steel manufacturing company, taking over the leadership of his father's company in 1887. He committed suicide in 1902, a week after the Social Democratic magazine Vorwärts claimed in an article that Friedrich Alfred Krupp was homosexual, and that he had a number of liaisons with local boys and men.

Oskar Seidlin(1911 - 1984) US

Poet / Author

Sir Alan Bates (1934 - 2003) UK

Actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He is also known for his performance with Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson, with a renowned fireside naked wrestling scene with Oliver Reed.

Although he was married to Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death from a wasting disease in 1992, Bates had numerous homosexual relationships throughout his life, including those with actors Nickolas Grace and Peter Wyngarde, and Olympic skater John Curry. In 1994 Curry died from AIDS in Bates's arms.

Peter Karlsson (1966 – 1995) Swedish Ice Hockey

Billie Joe Armstrong (1972 – ) US
Singer / Musician

Antton Harri (1974 – ) Spanish
Porn

Harisu(1975 – ) South Korean
Singer / Model / Actress

Eric Magyar(1975/6 – ??)
Porn / Director

Died this day

Jack Cole (1911 - 1974) US
Dancer / Choreographer

Randy Shilts (1951 - 1994 ) US
Author / Journalist

Sybille Bedford(1911 - 2006) UK
Author

Sodomy in history, February 17th

1755 — Georgia enacts a law making it a crime to deny that Georgian laws are in force, thus showing that English laws are not recognized. Since Georgia has no sodomy law, this shows that the English sodomy law was not considered in force.

1905 — In Ohio, a man is sent to the State Reformatory for sodomy even though the records state that he "proved" his absence from the crime scene. He spends two years in the Reformatory.

1923 — Utah amends its sodomy law to outlaw oral sex and to increase the penalty to 3-20 years.

Friday, 14 February 2014

Valentine's Day

Born this day

Kevyn Aucoin(1962 – 2002) US

Make-up artist and photographer. As a child, he used to frequently did his sisters' makeup and photographed the results. After dropping out of high school as a result of continuous bullying, he enrolled in beauty school, hoping to learn more about applying make-up - but ended up teaching the class instead.

He later moved to New York, where he was did several photo shoots and covers for Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and then worked for Revlon and the Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido.

Karen Dior (1967 – 2004) US

Transgender adult film performer, director, and singer, best known as a pioneer in popularizing adult films involving transsexual people.

M. C. Brennan (1969 – ) US

Rock vocalist, screenwriter and filmmaker.

Angela Robinson (1971 – ) US

Film and television director, screenwriter and producer. She is married to fellow television writer and director Alexandra Kondracke

Lisa-Marie Vizaniari(1971 – ) Australian

Retired Australian discus thrower, who competed in the Olympics in 1996 and 2000, in the World Championships in 1997 and in the Commonwealth Games in 1990,1994, 1998

Rie Rasmussen(1978 – ) Danish

Actress, film director, writer, and photographer.

Seany O’Kane(1982 – ) UK

Reality TV [Big Brother]

Milo & Elijah Peters(1990 – ) Czech

Porn twins

Died this day

Tony Holiday(1951 - 1990 ) German

Pop singer and songwriter. He led a clandestine homosexual lifestyle,and died on Valentines Day, 1990 of AIDS at the age 38

Dick Martin(1927 - 1990 ) US

Artist who illustrated a number of books related to The Oz books series.In addition to books, he designed greeting cards, post cards, and posters.

Don Slater (1923 - 1997 ) US

An early leader in the struggle for glbtq rights. He was the founder of the early gay magazine ONE,and also an activist for several gay causes in Los Angeles.

Joel Dorius (1919 - 2006 ) US

One of three gay professors of literature caught in a pornography scandal and forced out by Smith College in 1960 only to be exonerated in a celebrated case of sexual McCarthyism

Sodomy in history, February 14th

1635 — Two men are charged with sodomy in New Hampshire, but are not prosecuted, because it was not thought "fit" to try them there.

1787 — New York, which has been operating under the English sodomy statute for nearly a century, passes its own law, retaining the death penalty.

1902 — A New York appellate court overturns the sodomy conviction of a man for sex with a teenager of limited mentality whose father coached him in what to say in trial.

1963 — The Washington Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction after the "victim" was asked leading questions in the trial.

1973 — An Oklahoma appellate court upholds a sentence of 15 years in prison for consensual sodomy.

1975 — Virginia passes a new criminal code, keeps consensual sodomy as a felony, and increases the maximum penalty from three to five years.

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Events this day in Queer History

1999 – First National Freedom to Marry Day in the USA (then held annually on this date)2009 – Hungarian government approve a new registered partnership bill giving the same rights as marriage except in adoption and taking the same surname2009 – Civil Union Bill passed in Hawaii, USA

Saint's Day:

Died this day

Olive Custance(1874 - 1944 ) UK
Poet

Sal Mineo(1939 - 1976 ) US
Actor / Murder Victim

Muriel Rukeyser(1913 - 1980) US
Poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Her poetry, which breaks the silence of many aspects of female experience, has been enormously important to many feminist and lesbian readers.

Details of Rukeyser's personal life remain a matter of speculation. However, in 1978, she accepted an invitation to participate in a Lesbian Poetry Reading at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association

Peggy Gilbert (1905 - 2007) US
Musician / Band Leader

Randy Stone(1958 - 2007) US
Actor / Casting Director / Producer

Sodomy in history, February

1951 — The Missouri Supreme Court rules that consent is no defense to a charge of sodomy.

1992 — The Oregon Court of Appeals rules that the state’s public indecency law preempts local ones and that, under the controlling state law, public nudity must be for purposes of sexual gratification in order to trigger a violation.

1999 — The Montana House defeats a bill to remove the invalidated sodomy law from the books on a 50-50 tie.

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

“There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now O.K. to express ourselves publicly.We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.”

A self-proclaimed “forceful supporter of civil rights and those whose voices are not heard,” Baldwin spearheaded efforts to pass inclusive hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non- Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin is the first out lesbian elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. As of 2011, she was one of four openly gay members and the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress. In November 2012, she won election to the US Senate election for Wisconsin. In doing so, she became the first openly lesbian or gay US senator.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Baldwin was raised by her mother and maternal grandparents. She graduated from high school at the top of her class and attended Smith College, where she majored in government and mathematics.

In 1986, Baldwin was elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors, her first public office. During this time, she earned her degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. After practicing law from 1989 to 1992, she won a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

In 1998, Baldwin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first congresswoman from Wisconsin. She was elected to her sixth term in 2008. She serves on the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee of Energy and Commerce and on the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the Committee of the Judiciary.

Baldwin is a leading advocate for universal health care, as well as a proponent of renewable fuel sources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A self-proclaimed “forceful supporter of civil rights and those whose voices are not heard,” Baldwin spearheaded efforts to pass inclusive hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). She has authored legislation that would extend benefits for same-sex partners to federal employees.

Friday, 7 February 2014

Born this day

Olive Custance(1874 – 1944) UK
British poet. She was part of the aesthetic movement of the 1890s, and a contributor to The Yellow Book.
Bisexual, in 1901 she became involved in a lesbian relationship with writer Natalie Clifford Barney in Paris, which Barney later included in her memoirs. Custance then became engaged to George Montagu, but ran away and married Lord Alfred Douglas instead.

Johnny Jordaan(1924 – 1989) Dutch
The pseudonym for Johannes Hendricus van Musscher, a Dutch folk singer. He was well known for his songs about the city of Amsterdam, especially the Jordaan district.

Gary Bond(1940 – 1995) UK
English actor, best known as a theatrical actor , but also played a number of roles in feature films and on television. Bond was the companion of actor Jeremy Brett from 1969 to 1976. Later, American artist and illustrator E.J. Taylor was Bond's long-term partner from 1979 to 1995.

Witi Ihimaera(1944 – ) New Zealand
Author, and often regarded as one of the most prominent living Māori writers.

Steve Bronski(1960 – ) UK
Musician, and eponymous member of the British synthpop trio Bronski Beat, who achieved success in the mid 1980s, particularly with the 1984 chart hit "Smalltown Boy". All members of the group were openly gay and their songs reflected this, often containing political commentary on gay-related issues.

Mark Tewksbury(1968 – ) Canadian
Swimmer, best known for winning the gold medal in the 100 metres backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics. In December 1998, Tewksbury announced to the Canadian media and people that he was gay. He was the first Canadian athlete to voluntarily state his homosexuality and his announcement drew great public attention. In 1998, he lost a six-figure contract as a motivational speaker because he was "too openly gay. Tewksbury has simce become a prominent advocate for gay rights and gay causes in Canada and the world. On May 16, 2003, Tewksbury joined the board of directors for the 2006 World Outgames in Montreal and was named co-president.

Died this day

D. K. Broster(1877 - 1950) UK
British novelist and short-story writerNorman Douglas(1868 - 1952) UK
British writer, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind. His other claim to fame, is to have been possibly the first person to publish a collection of bawdy verse, a set of limericks such as this one:

There was a young man called McLean
Who invented a f**king machine.
Concave or convex,
It would fit either sex,
And was perfectly simple to clean.

Sodomy in history, February

1706 — Queen Anne disallows the 1700 Pennsylvania sodomy law that included flogging and castration provisions, unaware that it had been changed less than a month earlier.

1877 — The Dakota Territory reduces the maximum penalty for sodomy from life to 10 years.

1950 — The Maine Supreme Court rules that cunnilingus is a "crime against nature."

1966 — The New Jersey Supreme Court overturns the conviction of two prisoners for forcible sodomy on another because a third prisoner said during the trial that all of them had engaged in sodomy with the victim. Evidence also is presented at trial to show that the victim was the lover of one of the defendants.

1980 — The Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds the right of police discriminatorily to enforce prostitution and solicitation laws against Gay men.

1984 — A Michigan appellate court upholds the applicability of the gross indecency law to consenting adults.

Thursday, 6 February 2014

Born this day

Ramon Novarro(1899 – 1968) Mexican
Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was regarded as the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino. Novarro had been troubled all his life as a result of his conflicting views over his Roman Catholic religion and his homosexuality, and his life-long struggle with alcoholism is often traced to these issues. Novarro was the victim of a violent extortion attempt which resulted in his death.

Donald Friend(1915 – 1989) Australian

Artist, writer and diarist. Much of Friend's life and career were spent outside Australia, in places as diverse as Nigeria, Italy, Sri Lanka, and Bali .
Friend made "no attempt to disguise the homoeroticism which underlay much of his work", despite winning the Blake Prize for religious art in 1955. Nor did he mince words about his sexual preferences, depicting himself in his journal as "a middle-aged pederast who's going to seed".
Friend also published a number of illustrated books, almost all in limited editions, which displayed the same wit and sensuality that informs much of his art.

Arthur Gold(1990 - 1917 ) US
Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale were an American two-piano ensemble; they were also authors and television cooking show hosts.
Gold and Fizdale met during their student years at the Juilliard School. They formed a lifelong personal and professional partnership based on their common interests of music (forming one of the most important piano duos of the 20th century), travel and cooking.

Lionel Blue(1930 – ) UK
British Reform rabbi, journalist and broadcaster. He was the first British rabbi publicly to declare his homosexuality.
He is best known for his longstanding and respected work with the media, most notably the wry and gentle sense of humour on "Thought for the Day" on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He is also widely respected in the UK as a journalist, cook and author.

Adam Faust (1974 – ) US
Porn / Store Owner

Died this day

August Kopisch(1799 - 1853) German
Poet and painter.

James Merrill(1926 - 1995) US
Poet,whose awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1977) for Divine Comedies.
The Black Swan, a collection of poems Merrill's Amherst professor (and lover) Kimon Friar published privately in Athens, Greece in 1946, was printed in just one hundred copies when Merrill was 20 years old. Merrill's first mature work, The Black Swan is Merrill's scarcest title and considered one of the 20th century's most collectible literary rarities. Later,
Merrill's partner of more than four decades was David Jackson, also a writer.

Don Dunstan ( 1926 -1999) Australian
South Australian politician, Premier of South Australia from 1967 - 1968, and again from 1970 - 1979.
A reformist, Dunstan brought profound change to South Australian society. His socially progressive administration saw Aboriginal land rights recognised, homosexuality decriminalised and the first female judge appointed.
He was married twice during his political career, but after the death of his second wife and subsequent retirement, he took a male life partner, Stephen Cheng, with whom he opened a restaurant called "Don's Table" in 1994, and with whom he lived until his death.

Sodomy in history, February 6th

1907 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules that juveniles are not entitled to a lesser sentence for sodomy.

1918 — Two Oregon prisoners file suit against the sterilization law. One is a Gay man convicted of sodomy. He succeeds in convincing the Eugenics Board to change its position regarding him and the straight prisoner decides to allow himself to be castrated.

1957 — A bill to end the half-century-old ban on probation for sodomy is introduced into the Ohio House of Representatives. It passes committee, but never becomes law.

1991 — The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rules that a sodomy defendant can not demand an inquiry into the sex practices of his partner to determine if he is an accomplice.

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Novelist, born as William Seward Burroughs in St. Louis, Missouri. Heir to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company fortune. As a teenager, Burroughs was sent off to military school at Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he had his first same-sex encounters. He was educated at Harvard and Vienna universities.

Burroughs fell in love and became obsessed with Ginsberg, and they have remained lifelong friends. Following trouble with the law regarding his drug habits, Burroughs settled in Mexico City with his wife Joan. One night in 1951, after a few drinks, they were entertaining some friends with their "William Tell" routine. She put a whiskey glass on her head and he aimed a pistol at the glass. Although he was an expert marksman, the shot was low and Joan was killed instantly. Burroughs had to leave Mexico.

His sexual explicitness (he was an avowed and outspoken bisexual) and the frankness with which he dealt with his own experiences as a drug addict won him a following among writers of the Beat movement. With Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, he was one of the founding members of the Beat generation. He was known to be a lover of young boys and in his later years, he lived with his long-time companion James Grauerholtz.

Sodomy in history, February 5th

1993 — A Texas appellate court upholds a public indecency conviction for masturbating in a public restroom. The police had spied the activity through roof holes. The court finds that, because the activity could have been seen by anyone in the restroom, the police could use the roof holes.

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Born this day

Cesar Romero (1907 – 1994) US
Film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and as The Joker in television's Batman series.

Herman Meijer(1947 – ) Dutch
Fprmer politician for the Dutch Greens, he is a graduate architect and urban planner. He has been active politically for the student movement, as a gay activist, and for peace - and anti- racism committees. He was also one of the founders of the movement Christians for Socialism .

Bill T Jones(1952 – ) US
Artistic director, choreographer and dancer. who has twice won Tony awards for best choreogaphy: in 2007 for "Spring Awakening", and in 2010 for Fela!

Ernesto Scorsone (1952 – ) US
Politician, lawyer, and judge from Kentucky. A Democrat, he was appointed to the Fayette County Circuit Court in 2008 by Governor Steve Beshear, and later elected to a six-year term on the court. Previously, he had been a member of the Kentucky State Senate

Edwin Cameron (1953 – ) South African
Judge, serving on South Africa's Constitutional Court. Cameron served as a Supreme Court of Appeal judge from 2000 to 2008. He was the first senior South African official to state publicly that he was living with HIV/AIDS. Before his appointment to the bench, he practiced as a human rights lawyer, and has been prominently involved in numerous important court cases affecting LGBT rights and equality, and has won numerous awards, in South African and internationally.
Cameron has also co-authored a number of books, including "Defiant Desire – Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa" (with Mark Gevisser).

Mikey Craig (1960 – ) UK
Former DJ who became the bassist with Culture Club, one of the most popular bands of the 1980s.

Titti de Simone (1970 – ) Italian
Journalist and politician, who was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Italian parliament) in 2001, and in 2006 was elected secretary to the President of the Chamber.

She is president of the Sicily Queer Filmfest.

Miranda July(1974 – ) US
Performance artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger,[1] she works under the surname of "July,"

Died this day

Henry Brandon(1912 - 1990 ) German / US
A character actor in over 100 films, famous for playing Indian, Arab, Persian, Turkish, Native American and East Asian roles, usually villains.

Professor of English language and literature in the Netherlands. He was also a novelist, who won the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs in 1987 for his novel Mystiek lichaam. This work attracted criticism in gay circles for its alleged homophobia, but Kellendonk was himself gay, and died of complications following AIDS a month after his 39th birthday

Arturo Islas (1938 - 1991) US
Professor of English and a novelist, writing about the experience of Chicano cultural duality. Islas died on February 15, 1991 from complications related to AIDS.Victor Kovyl (???? - 2002 ) Belarusian
Hate Crime Victim. On 15 February 2002 34 year old accountant Victor Kovyl was found dead in his parents’ flat. He was openly gay both at work and in public. The police refused to give the details of the murder to Kovyl’s partner Alexander and one of the members of the police said to him: “It serves you right, sodomites (faggots)!”.Yardena Marsh (?? - 2006) Israeli
Transgender Murder Victim

Sodomy in history, February

1839 — Mississippi passes a sodomy law, doing away with its reliance on the common law to prosecute it. The penalty is set at a maximum of 10 years in prison.

1858 — A proposed new criminal code for the District of Columbia, which includes a sodomy law with a penalty of 2-10 years, is defeated 73%-27% by District voters.

1893 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in the first such case in the United States, rules that fellatio is not a "crime against nature."

1913 — The Idaho Supreme Court rules that the state’s sodomy law, with no maximum penalty established, permits a sentence of life imprisonment.

1967 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rules that police do not have to detain potential defense witnesses in public restrooms when they arrest people for solicitation therein.

George Nader (1921 - 2002 ) USAmerican actor and writer, born in Pasadena, California, who was partner toMark Miller.

Sodomy in history, February 4th

1864 — Idaho outlaws sodomy with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

1869 — South Carolina abolishes the death penalty for sodomy, but fails to include a new penalty.

1893 — A Gay sex scandal begins in Denmark and later Friedrich Hammerich, son of a prominent judge, is arrested. The press claims that Hans Christian Andersen started a seduction chain leading to the present scandal.

1981 — Rep. Jon Hinson (R-MS) resigns from the House following an arrest for attempted sex in a public restroom with another man.

1982 — Police in Kingston, Jamaica use tear gas to disperse a crowd of 2,000 which has gathered at a hospital to see two Lesbians in such a tight embrace that they required medical attention to be separated.

Monday, 3 February 2014

Known as an influential American writer who focused on character depth, Gertrude Stein spent most of her life in Paris. While in France she met her life partner, befriended famous artists and developed into an influential literary figure and feminist.

Born into a wealthy family in Pennsylvania, Gertrude Stein grew up in Oakland, California. As an undergraduate she attended RadcliffeCollege, now incorporated into HarvardUniversity, and studied under psychologist William James. She spent much of 1899-1901 at JohnsHopkinsUniversityMedicalSchool but did not earn her degree.

Stein moved to Paris in 1902 and became an avid art collector. She turned her house into an informal salon. It soon became a hotspot for famous artists and writers - including Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Henri Matisse and Thornton Wilder. Hemingway viewed Stein as his mentor and Picasso became her close friend. Stein later called Paris a city of "The Lost Generation."

In 1907, Stein met life partner Alice B. Toklas. Together during WWI, Toklas and Stein drove supplies to French hospitals. After the war, Stein received a medal for her contributions.

Stein wrote her first book, "Q.E.D.," in 1903, but did not publish a novel until "Three Lives" (1909), a work heavily influenced by former professor James and writer William Henry. Unique because of its similarity to the art form of cubism, Stein's writing delved into a literary area previously unexplored. "Tender Buttons," a short collection of feminist poems published in 1914, resembled Pablo Picasso's artwork, albeit in different form. In 1926, Stein explained the connection during lectures at the University of Oxford and CambridgeUniversity. She published her lectures as a book, "Composition and Explanation" (1926).

In 1932, "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas," a book that told Stein's life story, excited the American public. It was her first bestseller. Composers adapted several of her works, including Virgil Thomson's "Four Saints in Three Acts" and "The Mother of Us All."

Complex and progressive, Stein's writing transformed American literature and contributed to the feminist movement. A monument on the upper terrace of Bryant Park in New York City honors her memory.